Research - for fun and profit! Annie West

Paris Square

It was only after I was first published that I realised the importance of research. I discovered there is always someone who knows, (or believes they know) what you've written about in detail. Sometimes that knowledge is a source of pleasure and leads to a friendly discussion between reader and author, and maybe a sharing of reminiscences. If you get the detail wrong, its a source of dissatisfaction to a reader.

Desert sunset

As a contemporary author I'm lucky. I don't have to remember the intricacies of social mores in another time period, but there are still things to trip up an unwary author.

My first book was set partly in Wollemi National Park, NW of Sydney. A friendly reader contacted me saying they'd enjoyed the story but letting me know I'd erred in mentioning a Death Adder in the bush there. She'd lived in the Sydney region all her life and said Tiger Snakes and Browns were the ones in that area. Fortunately I knew that there were also death adders as I'd seen them when I'd bush walked in the same area as my characters. But that experience reminded me that readers DO care what they read and they care about whether you get it right.

Blue Mountains

Over the years I've had to research a range of topics - on the net, in person and via email. I've rung strangers in embassies to check on the likely prison sentence for a conviction of manslaughter in Italy. I've discussed the treatment illnesses with people who've experienced or treated them. I've visited a gun shop to have an in depth discussion on the use and abuse of certain firearms. I've chatted with people about their families' favourite recipes from their country of origin, learned about scuba diving near the Arabian Peninsula, watched programs on underwater archaeology and interrogated experts on the preservation of books and old documents. And that's just a taste of my research.

Alpine sleigh ride

Along the way I've discovered the research I enjoy most is the sort where I get to experience things first hand. In order to write my stories I rely on a strong sense of place. The location for my books must be vivid in my mind for me to proceed. I write based on places I know or places I've created in my mind, based on localities I've visited.

Here are a few places I've visited specifically for my writing. Paris has appeared in a couple of my books now and I love setting scenes there. Visiting that gorgeous city provided inspiration for quite a few scenes in my books and I know it's going to crop up again.

I've written quite a few sheikh romances but it was a while since I was in the Middle East so on a trip to Europe a few years ago I made a point of stopping and visiting some of the places I wanted to write about - including the desert at sunset and the souk (particularly the spice markets and the jewellery stores). The pictures I took are a source of inspiration but so too are memories of how it felt to be there and even the scent of the place.

Sleeping in a castle

'Undone By His Touch' was set in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Declan watched his brother fall to his death while climbing on a sheer cliff there and he still bears the scars. Walking in the mountains, and climbing those cliffs (albeit on stairs cut into the cliff rather than by rope) helped me visualise the location and write those scenes.

military uniform

Then there were the royal stories, set in an alpine kingdom that owed a lot to Ruritania. The first of these stories included a romantic sleigh ride through fresh powder snow in a gorgeous mountain setting. Yes, I could have written it without riding in a sleigh, but wow! Writing the scene was so much more vivid for having experienced it myself.

And if you're writing a royal story there's something to be said for visiting a castle. Not just visiting but staying there. I was lucky enough to spend a night in a castle overlooking the Rhine on a wintry night near Christmas. The skies weren't blue but the place was almost deserted because it was off season. As a result it felt as if we had the place to ourselves - just what you want if you're trying to imagine living there. And being a Cinderella story there was the question of uniforms. My Prince Charming needed an old style dress uniform for a ball - a perfect reason to check out a local historical museum for the finer points of dressing my alpha male.

Garden at Clos Luce

I'm including a photo of Clos Luce in Amboise, France. This is the garden surrounding the lovely old manor where Leonardo da Vince lived out his final years. After spending an afternoon there I had a stack of ideas for my book 'Defying Her Desert Duty' (which, despite the title is set mainly in France). I set several chapters in the house and the beautiful gardens, which inspired a pivotal scene I hadn't planned till my visit. It was being there in person that helped me work out, not merely the location, but the direction of the story.

I'm hoping to do plenty more research for future books, hopefully with a little travel thrown in and definitely with a chance to chat with interesting people.

How about you? If you're a writer what's the most interesting thing you've done in the name of research? If you're not a writer, what would you like an excuse to research?